You Don’t Have to Write Every Day

But you do need to be faithful to your writing practice, as if it is a lover or a friend.

While I was finishing my novel Viral Times, I thought of the incomplete book as it if were a lover. One who I discovered in delirious delight, who I had left by the wayside, revisited with joy, then lost touch with again. Viral Times was patient, waiting for me. We all love that kind of love, don’t we? Because creating things has its challenges, we deserve that kind of love.

Jessica Strawser, editor of Writer’s Digest, wrote about the not-every-day practice on the magazine’s blog. She interviewed Patricia Cornwall, author of the amazing Kate Scarpetta mysteries. The novelist said

Treat your writing like a relationship and not a job. Because if it’s a relationship, even if you only have one hour in a day, you might just sit down and open up your last chapter because it’s like visiting your friend. What do you do when you miss somebody? You pick up the phone. You keep that connection established. If you do that with your writing, then you tend to stay in that moment, and you don’t forget what you’re doing.

Usually the last thing I do before I go to bed is sit at my computer and just take a look at the last thing I was writing. It’s almost like I tuck my characters in at night. I may not do much, but I’m reminding myself: This is the world I’m living in right now, and I’ll go to sleep and I’ll see you in the morning.

You only need to be faithful to your writing this week, and every week. Every day doesn’t work for everybody.